avatar! | 1,945 Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1k7387pmrpo A video game trafficking ring has been smashed by police in Italy, after fake vintage consoles and games worth almost €50m ($55.5m) were seized. Among the counterfeit games were popular titles from the 1980s and 90s, including Mario Bros., Street Fighter and Star Wars. The pirated consoles were imitations of the iconic devices produced by Nintendo, Sega and Atari and did not meet strict safety standards. The haul had an estimated value of €47.5m, Mr Langella said, a figure which includes the value of the consoles and hundreds of licenses for the pirated programs. They were "all from China" and were imported to be sold in specialised shops or online, Mr Langella said. All the devices were fitted with non-certified batteries and electrical circuits and did not meet EU technical or safety standards. The seized games have been destroyed. Nine Italian nationals have been arrested and charged with trading in counterfeited goods. If found guilty, they face up to eight years in prison. This really begs the question just how rampant are counterfeit video games? Most of us can open a used cartridge and then inspect it. It would be obvious if it's a fake from China. But, what if a game is "new"& sealed, and then sent to grading to say WATA? Would they spot it? Do they check for counterfeits? How hard is it to fake an h-seam? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s | 4,386 Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 (edited) This article is super misleading, they seized 12,000 consoles that had pirated games preloaded on them and the police estimated the licensing cost for the software loaded on the consoles at 47.5 million pounds. There were no actual fake copies of physical games. Edited September 19 by a3quit4s 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,727 Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 (edited) If this junk was worth $50m, my collection is worth $100m. It sounds like they added up the MSRP of each pirated game. Edited September 19 by DefaultGen 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avatar! | 1,945 Posted September 19 Author Share Posted September 19 2 hours ago, a3quit4s said: This article is super misleading, they seized 12,000 consoles that had pirated games preloaded on them and the police estimated the licensing cost for the software loaded on the consoles at 47.5 million pounds. There were no actual fake copies of physical games. That definitely was not clear, so no physical games, just consoles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s | 4,386 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 18 minutes ago, avatar! said: That definitely was not clear, so no physical games, just consoles? Around 12,000 consoles holding over 47 million pirated video games were seized by police, Alessandro Langella, head of the economic crime unit for Turin's financial police, told the AFP news agency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avatar! | 1,945 Posted September 20 Author Share Posted September 20 Thanks, it sounds like it was just fake consoles -- Italian police destroy $55 million of fake consoles in massive counterfeit gaming bust https://www.destructoid.com/italian-police-destroy-55-million-of-fake-consoles-in-massive-counterfeit-gaming-bust/ That said, my original question is still valid -- This really begs the question just how rampant are counterfeit video games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elprincipe | 148 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 (edited) Depends on how easy a certain game is to fake and how much motivation the counterfeiters have to make them. We all know there are zillions of counterfeit Pokemon games out there, for example. For something obscure with only a few people who would be interested, unless you can make a ton of money on only a few sales it wouldn't be worth it. And some things are harder to fake than others. Edited September 20 by elprincipe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyree_Cooper | 878 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 like a3quit4s said, extra misleading borderline clickbait article. original bbc article full of clickbait links including the 1.5 million usd penis suckage super mario 64. non news from non journalists on non newspapers. and if you want to see what these were you can see it in the video here. buy from aliexpress and resell in europe, oh my god what a shocking news. they were not up to standard and might have exploded or something, woah. guys have just found out cheap electronics made in china can be shipped overseas. https://www.torinotoday.it/cronaca/sequestro-console-vecchi-videogiochi-piratati-settembre-2024.html same knockoffs and multi consoles that are literally everywhere on ebay and resold by a miriad of legit resellers in the west with a logo and a CE mark. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,152 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 For Sale - I have a PSP with an NES emulator on it and the ROM for Stadium Events. Selling at cost for $20,000. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlegamer | 228 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 It's confirmed: if you support bootlegs, you are supporting organized crime. This includes LE numbered bootlegs. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 5,019 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 (edited) 28 minutes ago, Gentlegamer said: It's confirmed: if you support bootlegs, you are supporting organized crime. This includes LE numbered bootlegs. Not sure if you're being serious or not, but nowhere in the article is anything about organized crime mentioned. It's literally just a few folks purchasing several thousand units in bulk (likely NES minis, plug n plays, handhelds with pre-loaded roms, etc) and selling them to shops around the country for sale. As was mentioned in earlier comments, this is the same type of stuff that people buy on Aliexpress all the time to sell on eBay and elsewhere. Organized crime my ass. Edit: Even back in the day, some companies were in cahoots with the pirates, but this is something that shouldn't be surprising - look at Microsoft's stance towards the pirating of their software in China so many moons ago, it's just about building brand recognition in regions where the games can't be sold for full retail price, though I'm sure everyone here already knows that. Edited September 20 by fcgamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,152 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 1 hour ago, fcgamer said: It's literally just a few folks purchasing several thousand units in bulk (likely NES minis, plug n plays, handhelds with pre-loaded roms, etc) Organized. 1 hour ago, fcgamer said: and selling them to shops around the country for sale. Crime. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 5,019 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 5 minutes ago, Code Monkey said: Organized. Crime. A bunch of grandmas happen to sell fake Nintendas picked up at a drugstore for a charity event. Organized crime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlegamer | 228 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 23 minutes ago, fcgamer said: A bunch of grandmas happen to sell fake Nintendas picked up at a drugstore for a charity event. Organized crime If they have coordinated their activity they are engaged in a criminal conspiracy, that is organized crime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 5,019 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 1 hour ago, Gentlegamer said: If they have coordinated their activity they are engaged in a criminal conspiracy, that is organized crime. Well this loose definition could be applied to basically any criminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s | 4,386 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 It's amazing how many legal experts VGS attracts haha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,728 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 35 minutes ago, a3quit4s said: It's amazing how many legal experts VGS attracts haha I think it's all the alcohol fumes that they inhale cleaning their games. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zi | 156 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 This article is super misleading… They actually seized 7 people who happened to have 12,000 game consoles which happened to be worth 4.7 million Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyree_Cooper | 878 Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 that's what happens when you read "the news" without digging a bit. it takes literally 10 seconds of googling correctly to find a video where you see the actual stuff they seized. lowest level of journalism like this is worse than organized crime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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